Just like many other UN meetings, the already-contentious negotiations at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) now taking place in Johannesburg, South Africa could be further imperiled because some delegations and nongovernmental organizations are seeking to use it to promote abortion rights.
Media coverage of the Johannesburg Summit has focused upon environmental issues, and disagreements between the United States and the European Union over how to finance aid projects in the developing world. However, it now appears that negotiations may hinge upon an entirely different topic, a paragraph devoted to the provision of what is called "basic health services."
This paragraph, which had already been agreed upon in preparatory meetings for the Summit held in Bali, Indonesia, is now considered unacceptable to some members of the European Union, Canada and their radical feminist NGO allies. They seek to reopen debate on the paragraph, a highly unusual practice at this late stage of negotiations, and one that threatens the entire proceedings, as other participants may now seek to renegotiate compromise language their own countries do not fully endorse.
It appears that the United Kindom is most emphatic about reopening the "basic health services" paragraph, with the particular intention of introducing abortion rights into the text. According to an August 25 article in The Sunday Times of London, Clare Short, the United Kingdom's International Development Secretary, "is sparking controversy at the summit by insisting that it guarantees all women the 'human rights' of access to abortion and contraception."
The opinion that the "basic health services" paragraph is deficient, and thus needs to be revised, remains very strongly held by some. At a European Union briefing for NGOs, a member of the Women's Caucus announced that, if the paragraph remains unchanged, "Our cause will have been set back ten years, pre-Cairo," a reference to the 1994 UN Conference on Population and Development in which the reproductive rights agenda gained significant momentum.
Specifically, these participants at the Johannesburg Summit oppose the notion that "basic health services" should be available to all, as long as these services are "consistent with national laws and cultural and religious values." They worry that any reference to national laws and customs renders it impossible to set new international norms for reproductive rights.
One diplomat told the Friday Fax that "to hijack the debate over to reproductive rights and abortion is at best counter-productive and at worst calamitous. The whole conference could unravel because of this." The United States, the Holy See, and the developing countries represented by the G77 block have attempted to broker a compromise by introducing human rights language into a paragraph condemning violence against women. This effort has so far not found a receptive audience with the EU.
Pro-Life Infonet
3. september 2002